An open letter to Barack Obama

Friday

Sep 26, 2008 at 2:00 AM

Dear Senator,

Dear Senator,

We have to talk. Why? Because your wife made my daughter cry. Am I upset about that? It depends.

This is the first time in her life that she's given a presidential race more than a passing glance, and she is in her mid 30s. Until now, she's looked at elections as races to the bottom with the principal difference between candidates being the steepness and velocity of their descent.

I am a teacher and a local columnist. My daughter emerged from her weary cynicism when she heard your wife, then Hillary Clinton, then Joe Biden and finally you. She's become convinced that you guys might actually improve the chances of ordinary people to get a better life. You gave her hope.

When I heard that what you stand for made my daughter cry, it made me cry, too. Hope is desire plus optimism. I had almost given up hoping that her hope could be awakened.

The other night at dinner, my Republican brother warned me. "If Obama gets in," he said, "you'll see the biggest redistribution of wealth since the Roosevelt administration."

"God, I hope so," I said. That's your job. The Republicans warn about "class warfare" but the war has been on for years and ordinary Americans have been losing it. They've felt it in their bones — that the game was being rigged against them.

If you want to lead, you have to be truly angry at what's been done during these last 20 years. At the convention, Bill Clinton explained it: Continually rising productivity rewarded by a diminishing share of the wealth we've created. But he was being cool. You know how he is.

Want to know the Republicans' secret? Turn on talk radio. Hear the outrage. And here's the irony: The anger of working Americans is being directed almost everywhere except toward the true causes of their suffering. This is not the time for oratory. Talk to us with the clarity of Clinton and take about half off the anger of Jeremiah Wright. What were the policies? Who did they benefit? Who got hurt?

The Republicans talked about "trickle-down" economics, as though the wealth of America quite properly puddles at the top, and the crumbs that fall from our master's table trickles down to the parched throats of America's working poor. You have to feel the burn.

But then you have to tell us what you truly want. Is it a living wage? God, I hope so. How elitist of Sarah Palin to pretend that America's strength and virtue reside in her small towns, as though the residents of Pennsylvania and Ohio are too urban to understand sacrifice and honor, parenthood and patriotism. But she'll get away with it if you don't show us the real stuff. Make us some promises. And tell us how we'll know the promises are being kept.

You have to want something more than victory. There must be an ache for something better than this. And there must be a barely controlled rage that the trust of so many has been betrayed.

Make no mistake; if we are not planning to change, we are planning to continue. We are planning to pay our workers less. We are planning for less security, less peace of mind, less confidence in the future, less pride and more subservience. That is what the Republicans have brought us and that is what will continue if they are not removed from power.

If you win, you have to deliver. If you are going to make my daughter cry, you have to come through with the goods. Everybody's been talking about change — you, Hillary, even McCain. The word has been almost drained of meaning. The Republicans got their wish and have run the whole government. But even under Clinton, America's concentration of wealth at the top continued. I fear if you do not clarify this central unfairness as our fundamental economic problem, you will not win. Then, almost as much, I fear that if you win, you will not make a sufficient difference — a difference my daughter can see and feel where she works and lives. Please prove my fears are wrong.

Sincerely yours,

Lawrence Brown

Lawrence Brown of Hyannis teaches humanities at Cape Cod Academy in Osterville. Call him at 508-771-5096.